The lights on 90 iconic landmarks in Moscow were switched off for an hour on Saturday night as part of a global environmental action, allowing the Russian capital to save 5 megawatts of electric power, a city government official said.

Moscow joined thousands of cities and towns across more than 150 countries to turn off their lights during the “Earth Hour” in a symbolic show of support for the environment.

“Money-wise, the saved sum was very small [about 26,000 rubles or $900], because we use advanced energy-saving technologies to illuminate landmark buildings in Moscow,” said Pavel Livinsky, the head of the Moscow city fuel and energy department.

“The lights went off just symbolically to call the attention of Muscovites to environmental problems and energy saving,” the official added.

A crowd of about 200 people gathered in Red Square as the Kremlin, the St Basil’s Cathedral, the GUM store, the All-Russian Exhibition Centre, the Pushkin Library and other prominent buildings plunged into darkness at 8.30pm local time.

The Moscow authorities are yet to calculate the number of households that joined the action by switching off the lights for 60 minutes.

According to official statistics, about 16 million Russians took part in the Earth Hour action in 2012.

Earth Hour is a worldwide event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and held towards the end of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

The event first took place in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights.

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.